Looking for server

Org Profile · Post by **Phade** » Sat Apr 26, 2003 6:06 pm

Hey,

I'm planning on using 8 hard drives. Six of them will be in RAID 5. Two of them will be sitting there as hot-spare drives. The hot-swap ability is low on the priority list and can be left out if needed. The case will still have hot-swap drive enclosures so that system down time will be a minute or so compared to several minutes to an hour or so for non-hot-swap setup (taking down the server, opening the case, replacing the drive(s), putting the thing back together, and then putting the server back into place).

Most of the bids I've gotten so far have used dual Xeon 2.4G processors. They seem to have the best overall bang-for-buck price ratio. RAM will probably be registered ECC DDR.

I'm also still trying to decide between the WD1200JB drive and the WD2000JB drive. The 120's will yield about 600G of space while the 200's will yield about 1000G of space. The price difference will be about $750.

What would really be helpful is "you can get the entire setup here for this price" kinda information. I'm perdy well versed on how a server should work and such. I really just need to know where to get it and what the price will be.

Thanks again for your help!! ^_^

Phade.

dwchang · Post by **dwchang** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 4:43 pm

Phade wrote:Most of the bids I've gotten so far have used dual Xeon 2.4G processors. They seem to have the best overall bang-for-buck price ratio. RAM will probably be registered ECC DDR.

Best bang for buck a dual Xeon....laughable

. Xeons are just P4s with slight changes. All they are is Intel's "cheap" solution compared to their Itaniums (which fortunately (for us) suck balls).

Now that the Opteron's are out, they are easily the best bang for buck. Given A) It'll be hard to get some since they JUST launched 5 days ago and B) I work for AMD and am bias. However, if you want benchmarks, dual Opterons beat a Xeon 5 - 40% easily and are cheaper.

Again though..hard to find and not sure on hardware support you need right now. I do however wanna throw out the 4P set-up

If you gotta go classic x86, I still say AMD with a dual 2.167 Mhz Bartons (model 2800+ I believe) with 512 kb cache each. I'm sure Xeons probably would beat them, but the price difference is huge. Regardless, it's widely accepted in the computer architecture field that Xeons are pieces of crap.

Org Profile · Post by **Phade** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 6:27 pm

Hey dwchang,

The problem is that the 3ware RAID card requires a 64bit PCI slot. This requirement GREATLY reduces the number of usable motherboards. Of the remaining available motherboards, the dual Xeon setup remains the best bang-for-buck configuration to date. If you can find a better overall deal (actual total parts cost vs. performance, not just CPU specs), please let me know. ^_^

Phade.

CrazyCelt · Post by **CrazyCelt** » Sat May 03, 2003 1:36 pm

This is the body from the e-mail I just received.

-----------------------

This quote is only valid for about a week. The price flucuations are just too
great anymore.

System Parts List
Component qty Description Unit Price Total Price

Case 1 AIC RMC3Q w/460w PS $750.00 $750.00
Motherboard 1 SuperMicro Dual Xeon X5DAE $638.75 $638.75
CPU 2 Xeon 2.4GHz $245.00 $490.00
Memory 2 512MB DDR PC2100 ECC $95.75 $191.50
Hard Drive 8 Western Digital 200gb 8mb cache $271.75 $2,174.00
Video 1 EVGA 32mb TNT2 M64 AGP $28.00 $28.00
Lan Card 1 Intel Pro 10/100/1000 dual port A/S $183.75 $183.75
CD-Rom 1 24x Mitsumi slim black $60.00 $60.00
Floppy 1 Mitsumi slim black 1.44 FDD $26.00 $26.00
Controller/Terminator 1 3ware Escalade 7500-8 $439.00 $439.00
Misc. 4 HDC-25C06 HS PATA cables $32.00 $128.00
Shipping Box 1 Custom Box $30.00 $30.00
Build Raid 1 Build Raid system $100.00 $100.00

Total $5,239.00
Redundant 460w Power Supply upgrade $500.00
Upgrade to 2GB DDR PC2100 ECC $266.50
Redundant Intel Pro 10/100/1000 dual $183.75
Secondary Total $6,189.25

The prices shown are exact cost from my supplier.
This is/would be a high-end high-availability redundant server.
I will expect a 4% commission on this sale.

-------------------------

Don't know how that compares to others, but I did say that I would post when I got a reply.

eitje · Post by **eitje** » Mon May 05, 2003 10:54 pm

if you still haven't found a server to suit you, i still think you should take a look @ http://www.appro.com if you want a pre-built server. barring that, you should be able to build an AMD MP system yourself for under $3000 matching your specs. i'd probably even build it for you, if it came down to it. ;)

i'm sure i'm annoying the hell out of you by now, so i'll quit after this. :)

case: $500-650
$500 case w/ 6 hotswap bays @ rackmountpro.com
$650 case w/ 9 hot swap bays @ rackmountpro.com
the $500 case looks a little more accessible internally, but (obviously) only supports 6 hot-swap bays.

mobo: $215
Tiger MPX (S2466) specs
Tiger MPX @ googlegear.com
the Tiger MPX is an upgrade to the original Tiger MP (which has been running rock solid for over a year in all of our dual proc servers @ work). has 64-bit PCI slots.

procs: $320 (2x$160)
Athlon MP review - MP 2100+ vs Xeon 2.4
MP 2400+ @ googlegear.com
while the MP 2100+ doesn't give much of a showing against the 2.4 Xeon, other evidence indicates that the 2400+ do perform similarly to the 2.4 Xeons.

RAM: $220 (4x$55)
Crucial-recommended RAM for S2466
definitely registered ECC, though you could probably sneak by with 2x512. i like crucial.

HDDs & controller:
PATA: $2211 (8x$209 + $539)
3ware 7500-8
WD200JD found everywhere. good disk.

SATA: $2511 (8x$239 + $599)
3ware 8500-8
160 GB Seagate drive @ googlegear.com
review of WD SATA drive @ storagereview.com
benchmarks show a pretty solid improvement with Serial ATA (plus HDD-native hot-swap support!) - nothing but SCSI is better!

NIC: $133
gigabit intel NIC @ googlegear.com
of course, you'll want a gigabit NIC in there too. intel's a good choice, and it'll fill your other 64-bit slot.

Other Parts: $150
it looks like those cases take standard CD ROM drives, so that's another $30 bucks if you want it, and we'll say $40 bucks for 2 good heatsinks (vantec's 1U offering, maybe) and another $15 for a floppy drive. the hot swap bays & backplane come with the case, along with a PSU. we'll get a cheapo AGP card, maybe even just an old S3 Virge lying around, that'll be another $15. cabling for another $25, fannage (included in the case, but we'll want more reliable products in the system) is another $25.

in all: $3750-4200

hopefully, you'll consider building your own system - saving over $1000 off the bat compared to a pre-built Xeon solution is quite compelling. if not, at least look at http://www.appro.com. that's what Anandtech uses, and i'm sure they'll offer you a reasonable quote on their 2128 series, and it seems to be what you want.

thanks for indulging me this last time. :)
good luck!

Daku-Tenchi · Post by **Daku-Tenchi** » Mon May 12, 2003 7:59 am

i thought ai had already talked to you Phade, i own white dragon computers. tell me what you want and i'll build it at cost. e-mail: raitonotenshi@msn.com

Org Profile · Post by **Phade** » Mon May 12, 2003 9:33 pm

Hey,

Ohhhh yeahhh... Just like my avatar's character, I forget things. ^_^ Check the requirements I've listed in this thread. Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks again and have fun!! ^_^

Phade.

Gimpy · Post by **Gimpy** » Sun May 18, 2003 10:52 am

In response to your debate over the 120 GB vs 200 GB, the 120's right now have the best cost per MB (or per GB). If the cost of a 3U case is not much higher than a 2U then it might not be a bad idea to do that and just get one, two, maybe three more 120 GB drives. Of course this is assuming that the place providing your colo is okay with using 3U instead of 2U, and also assuming that the RAID card in question can support more than 8 drives, since I was too lazy to read the specs on it.

I'm not too up to date on rack mount case prices, but besides the places other people have suggested, there is also http://www.servercase.com. I don't know how their costs stack up against others though..

gman4471 · Post by **gman4471** » Mon May 19, 2003 8:39 pm

You may want to consider using a SCSI RAID controller SCSI drives tend to be more reliable than IDE and faster too. You may want to check out www.mylex.com I use there raid controllers in all of the servers I construct, although the WD2000JB is a very good choice.

Also I noticed many of the prices that were listed above quite inflated- I am a licensed direct reseller for many different companies and I can get parts much cheaper than retail

You may also consider getting a removable backup system such as a tape drive or CDRW though it holds very little, to re-secure passwords, usernames, transactions, ect. But depending on what you may be using the server for, this may not be necessary.

As for a redundant power supply you may want to look into buying an external UPS. It is sometimes cheaper and you can power more than one server on it. I have an APC back-ups Pro 1000 and it provides redundancy to my two Unix servers just fine.

--Zak

Org Profile · Post by **Phade** » Mon May 19, 2003 9:16 pm

Hey gman4471,

If you can get a terrabyte SCSI array for the price of an IDE array, I'm all for it!! I haven't been able to find anything close so far, thus I was suggesting the IDE array.

A removable backup system really wouldn't work too much for me. I'm in North Carolina and the server is going to be in Maryland. Even so, I'm not aware of any affordable terrabyte tape backup systems.

The colo center is it's own backup system (batteries, generators, power scrubbers, the works). Paying per U doesn't justify the added cost of a power supply.

Check out the specs at the beginnig of this thread as well as the spec in the rest of the Golden Donut section. If you can come up with better and cheaper, your help would be greatly appreciated!

Phade.

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